


I Found A Picture Of Me That Was Never Taken...

by VelvetCurse



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Blood, Creepy, Mirrors, Photographs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25813834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelvetCurse/pseuds/VelvetCurse
Summary: When browsing my phone pictures to show my housemate her drunken boyfriends antics from the night before, I found a picture of me that has never been taken.  I'm posting in the hopes someone can help me figure out what's going on.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	1. POST 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at a Creepy Pasta. Written as if the character is posting on a forum for help with her problem. If you like it please kudos, it's much appreciated and comment if you'd like, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So, I’m writing this in the hopes that one of you can shed some light on this or even just to see if someone else has had a similar experience. Anything really just to know I’m not the only one or better still to find someone with an answer.

A few nights ago, myself and my house mate Tanya were sat in our living room. The night before we’d been ready to go to a party at a mutual friend’s house; well I say party but some of us had work the next day so it was more like a barbeque and social evening really, when Tanya had gotten a call. She was needed for work and had to go in to bail out some new guy who’d made a huge mistake and was almost having a panic attack over his situation thinking he was going to be fired on his first week. So, Tanya to the rescue and her apologies to our friend.

Her boyfriend Brett had come with me anyway because we were friends and there was no need for him to miss out even though Tanya wasn’t going. We’d been to places without her together before, it wasn’t an unusual occurrence and nothing out of the ordinary.

He was usually a quiet guy, polite and reserved, who let Tanya lead every situation they were in and was just happy to accept whatever she decided was happening. As such, no one had expected him to get drunk on our friend’s foreign booze and start dancing on the picnic table with someone else’s tie around his head; I’m still not sure where he even got it from.

Naturally I’d taken pictures to embarrass him with later because what else are friends for. Also naturally, I’d told Tanya about these events and pictures as soon as I’d next seen her, promising to sit with her and go through them as soon as we were both back from work that evening. So that brings us to where we currently were.

I scrolled through the pictures in my gallery until I got to the first one with Brett, Tanya leaning against my side with her hand on my forearm so she could pull the phone closer any time she wanted a better look at one of the pictures. The gold glitter on her dark skin still visible from the night before since she hadn’t had a chance to wash it off before going into work and her usually frizzy hair still straightened so it shone like silk.

I showed her a few of the more normal pictures with Brett still just sat to one side being his usual quiet self and then you could see the gradual descent into drunkenness as he got more and more wild and outgoing.

“Look at that one!” Tanya laughed, pointed at the picture of Brett dancing near the barbeque that was currently on my phone screen.

I giggled and moved on through a few more making small humming noises as to agree with every outburst that came from my friend beside me. I sat and laughed as she broke down in hysterics over the picture with the tie headband and waited for her to stop laughing and catch her breath again before I continued. Only a few more pictures to get through then she could call her boyfriend to mock him mercilessly, which is what I knew she would do.

I flicked to the next picture but it wasn’t of Brett, it wasn’t even of the party. I squinted, glancing at the date on the picture and flicked back then forward again, thinking it must be some sort of glitch with my phone gallery. The picture was of me, which shouldn’t have been strange except for the fact that it was dated last night in the middle of the party, only I wasn’t wearing the outfit I had been last night and it wasn’t in the same place.

I was wearing a sun yellow crop top and white denim shorts, which I didn’t think I even owned. I was stood with one hand on my hip, the other down by my side and smiling into the camera. My long, dark brown hair was blowing gently behind me and my head was tilted slightly to one side. In the background there seemed to be an open field with one tree off in the distance too far to really see and it was a bright sunny day. It was a lovely picture but I didn’t remember it being taken ever and it certainly wasn’t taken last night.

Tanya had stopped laughing and pulled my arm towards herself so she could see the picture more clearly. She studied it for a second then looked up at me.

“When did you take that?” she asked, “it’s a nice picture.”

“I don’t know,” I answered, confusion clear in my voice, “I mean I didn’t. I don’t even own those clothes and I don’t remember ever being in a place like that, plus, the time stamp says it was last night but I was at the party all night.”

“Photoshop?” she suggested.

“I guess…” I wasn’t convinced, “but I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t even now how, and how did it get onto my phone?”

Tanya had lost interest already and started to demand the rest of Brett’s photos so that she could see them all before going to call him. Once she had decided on something, it was happening no matter what so I indulged her and had forgotten about the weird picture by the time we’d gotten to the end of the party photos. She then went to terrorize her boyfriend and I couldn’t help but listen in and laugh as I imagined what poor Brett must be saying on the other end of the line.

The next time I thought about the picture was the next evening when my phone pinged as if I’d received a text message. When I unlocked my phone to see who had messaged me, I was greeted by my open photo gallery and a new picture I’d never seen before. In this one I was wearing a pink top and the same denim shorts from the previous picture. Now I knew I didn’t own that top because I hate pink and would refuse to wear it under any circumstances. The background this time was a group of trees, possibly an orchard because they looked as though they could be apple trees, but I couldn’t see properly from the focus of the camera. It was a beautiful sunny day again but the time stamp said today. Now I knew something was going on because it had rained all day, not a sniff of sunlight had been around.

I assumed from the text tone that had happened to show me this picture that one of my friends must be behind it. Someone was photoshopping me into these pictures and sending them to me, that was the only explanation. I started texting around, every friend I could think of that would have the skills to do something like this and then when they all denied their involvement, even the friends I didn’t think could manage it because they might have known someone who could.

One by one they all answered back to assure me they had nothing to do with the pictures. I messaged a few of them who were known pranksters more than once to tell them that if I found out it was them and they were lying I would be upset, but again they protested their innocence and I believed them.

If the pictures hadn’t been taken and none of my friends had made them and were playing a prank, I wasn’t sure what other options were left. If it was done by someone I didn’t know, then how would they get them on my phone and more importantly why?

So, for now I’m at a dead end wondering if some friendly ghost is creating nice pictures of me and planting them on my phone for me to enjoy. Hence why I turned to posting my situation on the internet to see if anyone else has had a similar thing happen and if they had figured out how it had happened.

If I find any more pictures or have anything else strange happens, I’ll update you all. For now, I’ll finish this here and see if anyone comes up with anything plausible.


	2. POST 2

Hey everyone, I’m back with more updates so you can probably guess that means something else has happened.

Before I get into that I want to address some things you guys have posted since my first post. To begin, I think I confused some of you. When I said I didn’t know the pictures I found on my phone, I didn’t mean I’d forgotten them being taken, I meant that as far as I am aware, they are impossible. Not only do I not remember them being taken but I have never worn clothes like the ones in the pictures and have never been to the places pictured.

I could see me forgetting having pictures taken, everyone does sometimes, but I wouldn’t have forgotten the outfit and even if that had somehow happened, I wouldn’t have forgotten going to those places. They were very pretty and I couldn’t have gone somewhere like that and not known it, especially since my appearance in the photos suggests they were taken recently.

So no, these pictures shouldn’t exist. Secondly for those of you who were confused about my appearance changing in the pictures, I hadn’t meant to imply the pictures themselves were changing after they were on my phone, they were sent to my phone after being changed, or whatever is going on. The reason I described two different pictures is because I was sent two, the first I’m wearing a yellow top, the second a pink top.

Third, some of you are convinced that it must be one of my friends playing a joke and originally, I would have agreed with you. What else could it be right? It has to be one of them taking a joke a bit too far and not owning up to it, but with what’s happened since then, if it is one of my friends and they still haven’t owned up, then we won’t be friends as soon as I figure out who it is. In fact, I might actually kill them and end up in prison.

This brings me nicely to the update on the situation that I have for you. After the second picture nothing happened for a few days and I started to think that maybe one of my friends had been playing a joke and since I’d called them all out on it, they’d stopped but didn’t want to admit it was them. I’d almost forgotten about the whole thing and had been getting on with my life.

It had been a long day in the office and I was relaxing on the sofa with a glass of wine waiting for Tanya to get home so we could carry on watching the show we’d been working our way through. My phone pinged and I sighed, assuming it was her texting me to say she was going to be late but it was a picture message.

I flicked the message open and glanced at what strange meme or joke someone had sent when I noticed it was another picture of ‘me’. I stared at the picture; this one was me in a field smiling at the camera with sunglasses on. One hand was up as if I’d just put on the glasses and I was in a flowing, black dress with no sleeves and a cardigan that was dark grey wool. This time I recognised the cardigan but was pretty sure I got rid of it when I moved out from my Mum’s, which had been a few years now, so the picture couldn’t be this recent if I was wearing it. The dress I didn’t recognise again. Glancing around the picture in the hopes I would see something to tell me where this one was taken, I noticed there was some sort of building in the background. It was hard to tell what it was since the focus was on the woman in the picture so the background was blurry but I was pretty sure I didn’t recognise it.

The thing that stood out the most, however, was the writing over the top of the image. It was thick print in a vibrant purple colour that stood out from the rest of the image and had clearly been added afterwards. I wasn’t sure what it was because it was just a vertical line, so could have been a 1 or a capital I.

I was still staring at the imagine when Tanya walked in chatting away, but I have no idea what she said because I couldn’t tear my attention from the picture. She stopped and looked at me, brow wrinkling because she was being ignored.

“What’s up with you?” she asked bluntly, “social media just too good tonight?”

I glanced at her, “I got another one.”

“Another what?” she asked, coming over and plucking my phone from my hand to look, “oh another one of these,” she sniffed, “why don’t you just delete them? Whoever is sending them will get bored eventually and just stop if you don’t react.”

“You might be right,” but I knew I didn’t sound sure, “this one has writing on it though.”

“It has a line,” Tanya stated, “I’m not sure I’d call that writing, it doesn’t exactly say anything.”

For the rest of the night she tried to take my mind off it and for a while it worked. We watched our show and chatted and went to bed late. I fell right asleep and by morning I’d managed to put it out of my head.

The next night I got another picture. I was wearing the same outfit and it seemed to be in the same place as well. The building in the background was slightly closer this time and I could tell that it was either a rustic red or brown building. It still could have been a few different things and honestly, I didn’t really care what it was at this point because this picture had writing on it too.

This one said ‘AM’ in capital letters, leading me to believe the first one had been ‘I’ to make the start of the sentence, ‘I AM’. Where was this going? I am… you are what? Maybe this series of pictures was going to finally explain things to me, or at least give me some information to go off.

I waited for hours for the next picture but it didn’t come that night. I was awake for hours going over what it could possibly reveal to me and eventually must have just passed out exhausted because I woke to the sound of my alarm for work in the morning. I grabbed my phone and checked it but there hadn’t been any more pictures sent.

I’m sure by now you can guess where this is going so I’ll just get on with it. That night I got another one. This one again was the same outfit and the same place. The building was closer this time and I could tell it was a two-storey barn, although I really didn’t care. The writing on this one was again in vivid purple and said ‘YOUR’. I am your… I just had to wait for the next night to find out where this was going.

I wasn’t disappointed, the fourth one had the barn closer again and another word, ‘SISTER’. I blinked at the picture confused, I didn’t have a sister. I didn’t have any siblings for that matter, I am an only child.

I showed Tanya but she just told me to ignore it again. Logically, she was probably right but it was harder to do when it was aimed directly at you. If I recognised the photos it wouldn’t have been so bad but the words linked with the fact that I had no idea when they’d been taken was settling a ball of dread in the pit of my stomach.

I sent my friends another volley of texts, more urgent than the last, saying I wouldn’t even be mad if someone owned up to the joke, I just needed to know who it was at this point but their responses all denied it again and some of them even sounded really worried and asked if I needed help, so I’m pretty sure they’re all telling the truth and this isn’t any of them, although I wish it was.

My only other course of action was to ask the one person who could confirm to me that the pictures were definitely lying. I called my Mum.

She didn’t answer but that wasn’t a big surprise. She volunteers helping animals and sometimes sits up all night with particularly bad cases to watch over them while the rest of the staff sleeps, so it isn’t uncommon for her to be sleeping during the day or unreachable because she’s nursing some poor individual who needs her more than I do. I left her a message saying I need to talk to her when she has the time and to call me back no matter what the hour is and that’s where I am now.

So, I haven’t had any more pictures tonight and nothing bad has happened and I’m typing this out to take my mind off worrying while I wait for my Mum to call back. Again, if any of you have any ideas please let me know because I have no idea what’s going on at this point.

I’ll get back to you once my Mum calls and let you know what she has to say. Although I’m pretty sure she’s going to agree with Tanya but I’ll never know if I don’t ask.


	3. POST 3

Here I am again, sorry for the wait but as I said before my Mum doesn’t always have the time to call back immediately and I didn’t want to be dramatic by telling her it was urgent because really nothing has actually happened.

She didn’t call back because she was looking after a foster dog she’s taken home from work. An old collie mix whose owner had died and no one had found her for a few days. The old lady had passed peacefully in her sleep but she had no close family and it was about four days before her neighbour called the police having not seen her for a while. Since the dog had been in the house with her owner, she hadn’t been fed in that time and my Mum estimates her to be in her mid-teens so for a larger dog this is very old. She wasn’t doing well and they wanted someone to foster her who could dedicate the time to looking after her day and night until she regained what little strength she has left these days. Of course, Mum to the rescue, so she hadn’t been sleeping a lot and needed to recoup. 

Before anyone asks, the dog is doing much better and I’m sure my Mum will actually keep her for the rest of her time as it’s harder to rehome older dogs.

That aside my Mum has now called me back and I got to ask her the question so here’s how it went.

My Mum called me early in the evening and apologised for not getting back to me sooner, she explained about her new friend and I assured her it was fine.

“So, you wanted to talk to me about something?” she said cheerily.

“Yes…” this suddenly felt really foolish but I’d come this far so might as well get it over with, “Mum I never had a sister, right? I’m an only child?”

My Mum paused for a long moment and then sighed heavily, “sort of,” she said cryptically.

“Sort of…” I repeated, “how can I sort of be an only child? I either am or I’m not.”

“We never told you because there never seemed to be a right time,” my mother said, “you were too young, or we’d left it too long or whatever our reasoning and honestly we didn’t think it would make that much of a difference now since there’s nothing any of us could have done about it.”

“What didn’t you tell me?” I asked, horror scenarios of dead toddlers going through my mind.

“When I was pregnant with you,” my Mum began in a soft voice, “I started off pregnant with twins. One night I started to bleed heavily and your Dad rushed me to the hospital but there was nothing they could do. I’d lost the other baby. They said these things can happen, especially with multiple child pregnancies and it was likely the other child just wasn’t strong enough. I say the other child because we hadn’t even gotten to the point where we could tell the sex yet, so I couldn’t say if it would have been your sister or brother.”

“So, it was really early on then?” I asked.

“Yes,” she confirmed, “and of course we were devastated, just because it was early didn’t mean we didn’t already love the child, but we had another to look after and we just had to get on with things. Honestly, I think it would have been a lot worse if we’d lost the baby later on or even after it was born and since you’d never known your sibling it just never seemed right to burden you with that when it was all over before you were even born.”

So, I had had a maybe sister, or brother, who knew. Alright, I could handle that, it was sad but like Mum said it had happened before I was born and as shocking as it was, I hadn’t had any attachment to them. But that brought up the question of who could possibly know about this and want to let me know, or whatever they were trying to accomplish.

“Who knew?” I asked.

“No one really,” Mum answered, “me, your Dad and Aunt Linda.”

“That’s everyone?” I asked in disbelief.

Dad wouldn’t have been likely to tell anyone else. He was a kind man but not very talkative. He had split with Mum a few years back but they’d remained friends. I didn’t see him often now because he’d moved away and he definitely didn’t know any of my friends. My Aunt Linda was friendly and outgoing but she could always be counted on, she wouldn’t spread something like that around. If Mum told her a secret it remained just that.

“Yes, that’s everyone,” Mum assured me, “Casey, has something happened?” I could hear the concern creeping into her voice.

“Nothing really,” I lied, I didn’t like lying to her but I didn’t want to worry her, “I found some photos that I didn’t remember being taken and it was almost like they were pictures of a sister rather than me.”

“That’s a strange thought to have,” Mum mused, “but I suppose I should have told you before now, so maybe it’s for the best. I’m sorry for keeping it from you.”

I assured her I understood why she had and wasn’t mad with her and then we talked about random life for a while before she hung up. It was a lot to digest. The picture obviously couldn’t be of my sister because she had never been born but if someone was sending them to me then how had they found out? There would be records of course, medical records for the incident but they were confidential and no one should have been able to gain access to them. Even if they had been leaked how would someone who knew me have gotten hold of them? And even on the off chance that all of that had happened, why would they want to torment me with the knowledge.

So I knew more than I had before but really all that had done is raised more questions.

It was getting later into the evening now so I decided to make myself something to eat and take my mind off the whole thing for a while. I didn’t need to start getting too obsessed with this. I hadn’t had another picture since the previous series of four and going out of my mind trying to work it out might be what the person wanted me to do. Or maybe they had wanted to give me that information and were done with me now and that would be the last I’d hear from them.

After I’d eaten and had a glass of wine, I went to my room to relax. I wanted to lie down for a while and watch Netflix or something on my laptop, just something to focus on instead of this weird revelation. I changed into my pyjamas and was brushing my hair out in the mirror when I noticed something fall in the background. I turned to see what had fallen off my bookshelf but I couldn’t see anything lying on the floor. At this angle that was the only place it could have fallen from and still shown in the mirror, so I was confused. I turned back to see if I could spot where it had fallen, only to see what looked like an orchard behind me instead of my bedroom.

The meadow, the apple trees, it was all there, just like in the picture I’d been sent. It was further back, like the barn had been in the first few of the four pictures and I couldn’t make out exact details but it was definitely an orchard.

I blinked, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands and waited a few moments. There couldn’t be an orchard in my mirror. The mirror faced into my room, away from my window so it couldn’t even be reflecting the tree that stood outside my window. The only thing it should have been able to reflect was my bookshelf and part of my bed.

I opened my eyes again, blinking away the dark spots from having my hands pressed there for such a length of time and looked again. Everything was normal, no trees, no grass, no blue sky, just my bookshelf, the end of my bed and the top I had thrown there this morning.

I stared for a good long while, angled my head in different ways, trying to make sense of what I’d seen, or what I thought I’d seen. No matter what way you look at it there couldn’t have been an orchard in my mirror. My bedroom walls are pale yellow and my carpet is light grey. I don’t have any plants at all in my room and no blue or green.

Since there was no sane explanation for what I’d seen I can only conclude I’m either going mad because of all of this or it’s stress induced visions. I suppose I have had a lot on my mind with the pictures and now the new information my Mum has finally shared with me. Finding out I had a sibling for a few weeks before I was born is certainly a lot to take in. I’m hoping it’s the latter anyway.

I’ve requested a few weeks off work. I just told them I’d had some shocking news and I needed time to come to terms with it, which isn’t exactly a lie and they were good about it, telling me to take all the time I need and just let them know when I’m ready to come back.

I figure I can relax, take in what’s happened and what I now know and just give myself some time. I might confide in Tanya but as of yet I haven’t told anyone. I sort of feel like it isn’t my information to tell, I didn’t actually live through it, I’m just learning about it after the fact and Mum obviously didn’t want it to be spread around since she told so few people.

I’m sure a few of you are going to point out that I’ve sort of already broken that by posting it to an online forum and I suppose you would be right, but at the same time, none of you know me, or if you do then you don’t know that you know me. So being anonymous and blurting all of this out has its up sides.

If nothing else happens I might not post again. It would be unlikely for me to ever find out who sent me the pictures or why, unless they want me to know and now I have the answers they were surely wanting me to find they don’t have any reason to send me any more.

So, this might be goodbye to my not-friends who have helped me through this. Thank for your support. If any of you have questions that I feel like I should answer I might come back and do one more post later on, just to tie up any loose ends. If you don’t hear from me again, just know that I will be okay given some time and I’ll get back to my normal life once everything has stopped whirling around in my head.


	4. POST 4

So, first I’d like to say thanks to all my well-wishers out there. I’ve had some really nice comments from you guys and it’s quite touching. Most of you have been saying to take some time to myself and just relax and everything will be okay, under normal circumstances you’d be right, but this isn’t just a last questions post, unfortunately.

I’m not sure at this point if I’m going completely insane or if something else is going on, but you guys have been with me from the beginning, so whatever is going on now I figure I should just keep posting until I can’t any more.

After the revelation about my almost-sister nothing happened for a few days and I started to think it was all over. Of course, I was still curious about who had given me the hints to begin with but now they had what they wanted I assumed I’d never find out because if I knew who they were they’d have to explain themselves.

I was still off work at this point but getting towards the end of the week off I’d asked for and was feeling okay to go back at the start of the next week. I’d slept late and gotten up, taken a shower and was sat on the end of my bed drying my hair whilst looking in the mirror. I wasn’t paying much attention to the background as I watched the brush glide through my dark hair and hovered the hair dryer over the still damp strands. Something caught my eye and I lifted my head slightly to see that the reflection in the mirror was totally wrong.

It was still me and I could still see the hair dryer and the bed I was sat on but my carpet was bright, green grass that stretched back as far as I could see. It looked bright and sunny and I could even see clouds overhead if I tipped my head a little. There was a tree in the background, off to the left and I started to swivel a little to get it into the reflection more when I noticed the girl.

She was stood behind me in the reflection, just the other side of my bed, with her knees touching it slightly. Her hands were at her sides and she was smiling. She didn’t look menacing at all and made no move towards me. She didn’t seem like she was going to hurt me but I still felt a cold chill of fear shake down my spine. She was the girl from the photo. The one who looked exactly like me but in different clothes, which she had on again, the yellow crop top and white shorts from the first picture.

I stared at her in the mirror, too scared to move for a long time but she just stood there, smiling and swaying slightly. Every so often she would clasp her hands together, wring them a little and then drop them to her sides again but otherwise she didn’t move.

I swallowed and forced my head to turn and look behind me into my room. It was still my room, no meadow, no grass or trees. Also, no girl. My room looked normal in every way and I started to think I’d imagined everything in the mirror as I looked around my room for anything abnormal. I thought maybe I was starting to go insane, maybe I am. You can decide after you’ve heard all of this post.

Turning back to the mirror, I saw the same reflection as I had previously. Everything was still there, including the girl, who hadn’t moved.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice small.

She smiled and it was warm and reached her eyes, “I’m your sister.”

I shook my head, “my sister died, or my brother, we never knew which.”

She showed a little hurt in her eyes and bit her bottom lip as if she was trying to contain her emotions. She started to wring her hands again and I thought maybe it was a nervous gesture for her, assuming she existed and I wasn’t imagining all of this.

“Yes, I did,” her voice sounded sad, “that’s why I’m here and not with you.”

“Where are you?” I questioned, “I’ve seen the pictures, I can see in the mirror, but if you’re dead I shouldn’t be able to see this at all.”

“I don’t know,” she answered, “ma-maybe it’s my own little heaven? I never did anything wrong and it is nice here. Or maybe it’s limbo. If I never lived do I have a soul to go to heaven? Whatever it is, I’m all alone, that’s why I sent you the pictures, I thought maybe if someone knew I existed then at least I wouldn’t be totally ignored.”

“You sent me the pictures…” I was talking to a girl in a mirror who claimed to be my dead twin sister who had somehow sent pictures to my phone from some sort of heaven or limbo.

“Yes,” she nodded, “I’m sorry if I scared you, I didn’t mean to, I just wanted you to ask the questions, to know who I was.”

“It did scare me,” I told her gently, “but I suppose I understand. If I’d been alone my whole… existence, then I guess I’d want someone to know me too, even if it did scare them a bit at first. But why the pictures? Why couldn’t you just come to me like this?”

“It’s hard,” she admitted, “it gets easier when the person I’m trying to contact knows who I am and what I look like so I needed to show you first.”

“How do I know this is real?” I asked, “this could just be me going insane after all the stress of the last week and now I’m seeing things and talking to someone who isn’t really there.”

“I can’t prove anything,” she admitted, coming around the bed and sitting next to me, “you can think what you want to and I can’t stop you but you’ve seen the pictures, they came from somewhere and you asked Mum about me right?”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

The bed hadn’t dipped when she sat down but of course, she wasn’t really there. I didn’t speak for a moment, studying her in the mirror. She looked so much like me, hair, eyes, complexion, all the same. There was one difference, she had a small, dark freckle under her right eye that I didn’t have. If I was making this up, if it was all in my mind, why would I put something like that there?

“I’ll leave you alone to think,” she said sadly, “if you want to see me again come to this mirror and think about the orchard. I’ll know.”

“Before you go,” I said, “what’s your name?”

She smiled but it was very sad, “I don’t have one. Mum and Dad never gave me one so I don’t have one.”

“That isn’t fair,” I felt so sorry for her, she hadn’t been born so she hadn’t even been given a name, “I could give you one, if you’d like.”

Her bright smile was back, “sure!”

“Then Poppy,” I smiled back at her, “your name is Poppy from now on.”

After that she left, faded away until the reflection was normal again and I sat there for some time thinking about what had happened, or what it meant if it hadn’t happened.

I’ve talked to Poppy a few more times. Nothing worth writing out here, just getting to know one another, our likes and dislikes, things like that. She finds it hard to talk for long periods because she’s been in the orchard for as long as she’s existed. I suppose she’s technically dead so she doesn’t eat or sleep. She doesn’t know anyone else so she doesn’t have any friends to tell me about and she’s never been to school or had a job. Mostly we talk about the things I’ve done; she likes to hear about my life since she can’t do a lot of the things I have.

I took another week off work, I told them I needed more time to get my head around everything I’d learnt recently, which I suppose wasn’t a complete lie. I’ve spent most of it talking with Poppy and last night she asked me something.

She asked me if I’d go to visit her. I took it as a joke at first, I thought she meant sit with her in the mirror again, but she said that she can’t come to our world since she’s dead but I can go there. She said as long as I don’t stay longer than twenty-four hours I can visit and leave again, no repercussions.

I told her I’d think about it but I do want to go. Imagine living your whole life alone, no friends no family, nothing and being unable to escape. She can’t come here and I’m starting to really enjoy having a sister so I want to make her happy too. She said that if I decide not to go, she’ll understand and won’t hold it against me but I know she’ll be upset.

Now I’m sure most of you are going to tell me not to go, it could go wrong or whatever, but imagine if it was you, stuck all alone for all that time and the one person who could give you some company decided not to visit because they were scared.

Maybe I’m doing that false-logic thing. You know, where you want to do something so you twist the logic to match what you want so that you can justify it, but I think I’m going to do this. So, once I do, if I make it back, I’ll update again and let you all know. Or maybe I’ll try to go and find out I can’t because I’m actually just going insane and none of this is even real. We’ll see, I guess.


	5. POST 5

A few of you guys, well actually a lot of you guys, told me I shouldn’t go just like I predicted but I didn’t listen. As always you guys were right. Although I did make it back, as I’m sure you figured out from the fact that I’m updating and I’ll never go again. I’ll let you know what happened and then that’s it from me, that’ll end all of this.

After my last post I spent a few days chatting with Poppy and making my decision. She didn’t really push, just asked me to let her know when I’d made up my mind and then acted like normal after that, or I suppose what I thought was her normal.

On the weekend Tanya had made plans to go out with Brett and I knew they’d be out all day and I’d have the house to myself and so wouldn’t cause any alarm or be asked any questions. On the Friday night I told Poppy I’d come and see her the next afternoon and she was so happy about it. She beamed from ear to ear and chatted excitedly until I had to turn in for the night.

After getting ready the next afternoon I told her I was ready and she asked me to stand in front of the mirror and stare at the scenery, at her world. She reached her hand out to me and I stared as I was told. Eventually her hand seemed like it was extending beyond the mirror, reaching out to me physically and I took it, as instructed.

I felt her warm fingers curl around my hand and clasped her hand back and she pulled me towards her and through the mirror. I have no idea how it worked, I just leant forward and suddenly I was in a meadow. It didn’t hurt, it didn’t really feel like anything, I was just suddenly there.

I looked behind me and could see a faint shimmering circle. If I stared hard enough, I could make out the details of my room back at home but that wasn’t what I was interested in right now.

The meadow looked exactly like I had seen in the pictures and through the mirror. It was bright and sunny; the grass was vibrant green and the sky blue and free of clouds. I could see the orchard in the distance and the barn next to it. Poppy stood and waited patiently whilst I looked around and got my bearings, just smiling and watching me.

“It isn’t a bad place to be stuck,” I said after a moment.

“No,” she agreed, “but when it’s just you alone, for however many years it’s been now, eventually you know everything there is to know and it isn’t really interesting anymore.”

She turned towards the barn and started walking back to it, slowly to allow me time to look around as we went.

“I’ve seen your house,” she said, “or at least some of it, so I’ll show you mine.”

“You live in the barn?” I asked.

“Where else?” she sounded amused.

Sure enough when she let me into the small door on the side of the barn it was like a house, in a strange way. It was a large open space for the bottom floor, with a ladder to one side that led up to what would usually be the hay loft. The down stairs had a sofa and small table and the loft seemed to have a bed from what I could see from down below. I noticed there seemed to be no kitchen so I mentioned it to Poppy.

“The dead don’t eat,” she informed me, a note of sadness in her voice and I immediately dropped the subject.

We sat on the sofa and started to talk. We didn’t really talk about anything in particular but Poppy just seemed to enjoy having the company and I supposed I couldn’t blame her after being here all these years. Hour after hour we chatted and I noticed I didn’t get hungry or thirsty there either, or I didn’t seem to. After some time, I looked up towards the door and noticed that the sunlight was no longer winking around the edges of the door. I looked down at my watch but it had stopped when I came to this world and still read the same time so I had no idea how long I’d been there.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“That doesn’t matter when you’re here,” Poppy answered cheerfully.

“But it matters to me,” I stated, “I can’t stay all night and it’s starting to look like the light’s fading.”

Poppy looked towards the door then quickly away, “it might be getting towards night,” she admitted.

“I’d better go then,” I informed her, “I can always come and visit again.”

She bit her bottom lip, wringing her hands in her lap, but I just assumed she was upset about me having to leave. I stood and headed for the door, swinging it open to find the sky black, no stars, no moon, just black. It was very unsettling and I wanted to get back to the portal and go home where I felt safe. As I stood trying to work out where the portal had been, I heard Poppy take a sharp intake of breath then make a small pained noise.

I turned to ask if she was okay and froze. She was crying but it wasn’t tears running down her cheeks, it was blood. Long trails of blood from her eyes tracking down her cheeks and as I stood fixed in place, they reached her chin and dropped, making red stains on her yellow top where they landed. Blood slowly ran from her nose as well and she opened her mouth in what I assumed was going to be a scream but instead I saw long, sharp fangs growing from her upper jaw that had forced her to open her mouth or pierce herself on them. She held up her hands and her fingernails had grown into sharp, knife-like talons and she stood with a growl, holding those claws out towards me.

“Why should I be stuck here and you get to live your life?” she hissed, her voice wasn’t sweet now, it had turned into a breathy hiss.

“It isn’t fair,” I tried to soothe, “but I can’t do anything about it, you said yourself you can’t come to my world.”

“But you can stay here and be with me,” she reasoned, tipping her head to the side and slowly inching towards me.

I shook my head, “if I do that then I’ll lose my life too, I won’t be able to tell you about it anymore, we’ll both just be stuck here as bored as each other.”

She shrieked and ran at me, growling and slashing the air as she got close. I didn’t wait for her to get to me, I turned and ran in the direction I thought the portal was, praying I was right and I would get there before she got to me. I could hear her screams getting closer and the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I knew she must be almost on me.

In the distance I could see the portal, shimmering with the image of my bedroom behind it. I wasn’t going to be able to reach it before she had me so I turned sharply to one side, hoping the quick change would throw her off and spun around to see exactly where she was. As I turned, she stopped, wicked smirk on her face as she swayed as if ready to pounce as soon as I made my next move. I could suddenly hear whispers all around me, as if people where just off to one side or behind me, just out of my field of vision and talking in quiet voices. I just couldn’t make out what they were saying but I felt if I listened closely enough, I would be able to.

“They are the others,” she hissed, “the ones who came before me.”

“I don’t understand,” I was almost in tears now, “I thought you were alone.”

“Oh yes, quite alone, you see only one of us can make a deal with him at a time. We stay here until we get our chance to get what we want, if we succeed then we get our wish, if we fail, we become his and become part of this realm. In the day time they can’t be heard, the light keeps them away, but in the night when everything is as it really is you can still hear them.”

I didn’t care, I didn’t want to know who they were or want to find out who this mysterious ‘he’ was, I just wanted to go.

“You can still see me,” I promised, “every day if you like, you don’t have to trap me here.”

“Oh, but I do,” her smirk grew wider, blood from her eyes and nose running along her lips and she licked at it as if she liked the taste.

I saw her tense, the muscles in her legs bunch ready to spring at me and do whatever she intended to do to me, which I assumed wasn’t going to be good, whatever it was. I didn’t wait to find out, I turned and sprinted for the portal as fast as I could. She did jump at me, the tips of her claw scratching down my arms and leaving raised, red welts where she tried to hang onto me. I cried out in fear and stumbled, regaining my footing after a moment and carried on for the portal. I didn’t dare look back, because I didn’t want to know how close she was to catching me.

Suddenly, I felt those claws wrap around my upper arms, digging into my flesh to make sure that I didn’t twist free. I thought she would slash me with them but she didn’t, she held me until they pinched into my skin and I flinched away from the touch but she didn’t draw blood.

“Poppy please,” I begged, my voice sounding whiny and high-pitched.

No sooner had the words left my mouth than I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder, up against my neck. I cried out as her long fangs pierced my skin, sinking into me deeper and deeper as she bit down. Struggling to think past the pain and fear I jerked my head back hard, smashing the back of my head into whatever part of her face I could manage to hit. She shrieked and jerked her head back away from me, hands leaving my arms to come up to her own face in shock.

I glanced at her for a second, there seemed to be more blood on her face than before but it was hard to tell. I wasn’t even sure if I could injure her, not permanently. Her face was a mask of red blood and white, flashing fangs and I’d seen enough. I sprinted for the portal again, finding a burst of speed I didn’t even know I had and when I was close enough jumped for it.

I appeared back in my bedroom at the speed I’d left her world, smashing into the side of my bed and being thrown forward onto it face down. I didn’t care that the impact had winded me, I was just so happy to be back in my room. After a second of re-learning how to breathe I looked over my shoulder into the mirror to see that red, snarling face floating there in the reflection.

I grabbed the first heavy object I could find, a candle burner, and threw it at the mirror, smashing it and removing the image forever. Collapsing onto the bed I cried until I had no tears left then I gingerly sat up and inspected my arms and shoulder. The wound and welts were gone, as if they’d never existed but I ached all over. I went to take a bath and soaked for a long time just trying to think of nothing. When I got out, I realised my mind was starting to go fuzzy on the details, on most things actually, so I just wanted to make this post to have it written somewhere to review later once I’ve rested.

Now I’m going to go to bed and sleep for a full day and maybe after that I’ll come read back everything I’ve written so that I can remind myself it really wasn’t all a dream. I’ll never speak to my sister again, if that demonic thing really was ever my sister to begin with. If she shows up in any more mirrors, I promise to remove them all from my house but I think when we were talking this afternoon, she admitted that she could only come to me in one specified mirror, if she was telling the truth. I think that’s what she said anyway, it’s a little hazy. 

Thanks for your support everyone. I promise I’m fine now, don’t worry about me, but I am going to rest. So, Casey signing out one last time.


	6. POST 6

Look guys I know I said the last post was the final one but I just have one more thing to update you all on. I promise to keep it short.

Firstly, I’m really glad these posts are here so I can read through them and find out what happened from my own point of view. The memories of my life are starting to become less fuzzy now, taking shape as my mind gets to grips with things again.

I noticed in the mirror that I have a new dark freckle under my right eye. Tanya seemed to think I was acting strangely when she came back after her weekend with Brett, I just told her I’d had a stressful weekend and made some changes in my life and I’d be back to normal soon.

It’s strange getting used to this new normal. I wonder what it’s like for her, getting used to being one of his voices, being the one that no one can ever really hear for a change. It’s done now, I’m very happy, I just have to get used to _life_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All kudos and comments are appreciated, please let me know what you thought!


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